If I heard the news reports right, yes.

And then, as if by magic...
Banks: I believe Bible's account of how life began
"That's what I believe, but I'm not going to impose my beliefs on other people, especially in this post-Christian society that we live…

Fair point. And definitely important to individual parents, although I'd hardly want to force teachers to publish the status of their relationship.

I handed them back to Fred Price (bless the man!) when…

Many of them will have problems at public schools. They're fast, overcrowded places.

Fairfax: School faith plan raises doubts

When even the PrimeMinister admits it. He saw it as a major condition of better education when reflecting on the attractiveness of his sons private education.
From my private school experiences, wealth and…

I agree about class sizes. I could never figure out why John Hattie put one-on-one time for…

There needs to be a further push to reduce class size, which makes the treasury ideological policy of an increase look even more bizarre and out of touch.

When even the PrimeMinister admits it. He saw it as a major condition of better education…

My husband teaches at one and no one has yet presented him with a gold medal (which we would of course melt down and sell, because have you seen how much teachers get paid?). On one hand I…

I don't know when this…

Let alone putting lipstick on it.

Ms Bennett said the Government was focusing on addressing poverty rather than measuring it, and so was putting its efforts into other areas.

Also to be fair to John Hartevelt , I have read more of his articles and can see he is…

You mean aside from parents noting their kids improving skills, the child's achievement in national assessments, the reports…

Teaching to a…

It could be worse...
Kentucky lawmakers shocked to find evolution in biology tests Representative Ben Waide, who…

The teaching to the test…

You can compare schools. But it takes considerable effort and sophisticated methods. It is precisely because our education system has compared schools that we have improved the system over the years. Qualified educated people have compared schools and discovered why…

This will be a test of that. Seriously, the journalistic challenge in this is enormous.

Ooh, and they could transcribe the data by hand in Māori. Or even better, draw pictures of NZ sign language! That would…

He was in high school after 2000 I believe. Completed an honours degree mid-2000s.

The move to table…

A+

He's not that old. And he's not a bad journalist either.

Let's see the…

Also, did he go to public or private? Low decile…

The tables are a mess because students are all very…

They didn't publicise them as much to the electorate though.

Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori

I'm still not sure how well they relate to the National Standards especially as they specifically have a…

My first though was “What would Harry Potter know?”

the largest mass murder on the continent in the nation's history

Exempting the Trail of tears and all the other genocide of Native Americans, naturally.

Come to think of…

If you or someone you know has recent evidence/experience of this it should be reported to the Ministry. The law is pretty clear, unless the school operates…

I knew SMTP didn't have sender verification for a reason...

I think it's been said here before that they're not mutually exclusive are they ? The desire to know how your child is doing and…

Do you reckon parents are seeking reassurance about individual students, rather than for whole schools or the whole…

Just to harp on about this a bit more. There is a very good reason why education is a degree level science and not a high school diploma. Understanding what works in education…

There are several worldwide surveys of performance that show the NZ education system has been working really well at producing children and adults that can think across several disciplines.

The reality is that…

I think the both Schools and the Ministry have let people down by not standing…

National standards or not, how do we measure that the teaching that you are doing is working? I still haven't seen a satisfactory answer on this. "Just trust us" doesn't cut it.

As an example:

Learning is…

The debate should be around what we…

Note that the letter refers to a request for “the National Standards data returns from every school”, not for aggregated data.

Also note that this is “one part of the request” and…

Exactly – and NZTA and Treasury really don't have the same accountability relationship as MinEd and school boards do. Hoping someone might be aware of an article somewhere examining the reasoning/implications of the delegation.

Ya, but I think "having it" in the form MoE got it from schools means the request should be passed off to them (since…

Also pretty much everything Giovanni Tiso's ever written.

But they've already asked each school to provide the data to them, so surely it's all there in one place even if they haven't 'aggregated' it?

It's pretty normal (see fyi.org.nz responses for some examples). I think the Ombudsmen/guidelines encourage the agency that is responsible for creating the information to be the ones to provide it... so…

Doom, doom doom is what I think.

By that you mean that it would be hard work to format the responses into comparable data that can be then used to compare schools in a balanced and measured manner.

However, they have no such obligation. Their obligation is…

Only if the data in itself tells you anything…

So while my initial reaction was to give a proverbial digital finger to Fairfax, as a…

It genuinely is mostly because it enables people to compare like with like. It was not well regarded by teaching unions, however it avoids…

That's in their interests. Rational self-interest.

It isn't in…

You forgot the ESOL students…

Wow.

I am Hartvelt of Borg.…

Many Ministers believe this too. It is, of course, not a good reason to withhold anything.

A certain wealthy school a couple of suburbs over from us has been notorious for discouraging special needs kids for a while now. Guess it'll only get worse.

The thing to do there would be to target…

There are limits already. Pretty significant ones that are used to weasel out of a lot of requests…

That's happening already. The local Decile 10 school is known to refuse entry to kids whose records suggest they will be "difficult".

I've taught for 18 years in a small rural town. Our schools are low decile…

So, it begs the question as to why a Government would want such a thing but we…

That not what has happened elsewhere. What has happened is that schools distort the education of children to get a good number on whatever measure the table uses this year. The…

politically (including engaging with parents and others) as they did so successfully over classroom sizes.

Slippery slope argument.

I really do get the importance of open data.

But I also know that civil protest is tremendously important as well. Without the willingness of people to break laws (even good laws)…

I did this a couple of weeks ago and heartily recommend it as a thoroughly refreshing experience.

A kid turned up at the door trying to sell subscriptions…

I'm…

So what's going to change then? 'cause it's not like anyone's going to be surprised the…

Though I get your point, would you ignore a lawyer on the law or a medical professional on a health matter? Teachers are expert, some more than others, and their perspective is a vital one. This predictable development…

and with some assistance by govt spinmeisters :)

The perception of the public will be of self interest by teachers.

Once information informs negative actions against the people involved, it isn't suitable for publication.

That would of course violate the Public Records Act, and place the offending institution at risk of a $10,000 fine (not to mention sacking).

If Fairfax produces anything like a league table, they've gone most of the way towards destroying any actual research value in the data by making…

Do you think medical records should all be shoved up on an open website, so we can analyse how doctors and patients are doing, with pretty graphics and that?

* yes, I…

Any offers for a syndicated psychic column accepted.

Either of which should result in staff being sacked for gross negligence.

Most people aren’t pro league tables. But many are supportive of the open data efforts that are getting taxpayers more & more access to public information, which we all paid…

Make that argument to your heart’s content, but the Office of the Ombudsman…

What would Gina Rinehart do, eh?

One thing people who don't support this could do is stop buying Fairfax papers, using Trademe, plugging their products and articles, etc?

But if past behaviour is a predictor of future behaviour, then no matter how worthless…

Actually I care a great deal. The OIA is tremendously important.

But so is our education system and the publishing of league tables is, based on all the evidence from around the world, going to do tremendous lasting harm to the education of the…

I gather that the large majority of school boards are aware of and obeying the law.

My beef is more with Fairfax. I wouldn't expect to change their minds on…

Fine, Bart. I suspect you just don't care how dangerous it is to applaud people who say, in effect "I don't approve of how you might use the information, so go…

I think you might be missing the point that sometimes legitimate and valuable civil protest will break existing laws.

I’d suggest they just obey the law. If it's good enough for the Education Ministry, Hekia Parata and her staff...